“When someone doesn't show up, the people who wait sometimes tell stories about what might have happened and come to half believe the desertion, the abduction, the accident. Worry is a way to pretend that you have knowledge or control over what you don't--and it surprises me, even in myself, how much we prefer ugly scenarios to the pure unknown. Perhaps fantasy is what you fill up maps with rather than saying that they too contain the unknown.”

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About Rebecca Solnit

American writer and activist

Rebecca Solnit is an American writer and activist. She writes about feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Her work ranges across essays and commentary on public life, with recurring attention to how people move through the world and how ideas shape it. She is also known for writing on land, landscape, and culture, bringing together personal observation and social critique.

More from Rebecca Solnit (189 quotes) →

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Books by Rebecca Solnit

Men Explain Things To Me

2014

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Wanderlust

2000

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Hope in the Dark

2004

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The Mother of all Questions

2017

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Whose Story Is This?

2019

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